I came across this last week:
Video recording – Digital Transformation Tech Talk webinar – 8 April 2022
At this webinar, our presenters Michael Lye and Fay Flevaras spoke to aged care and IT professionals about our work to create a better-connected, sustainable and modern aged care IT network in the aged care sector. This is the first webinar in a series of Digital Transformation Tech Talks.
Date published: 6 May 2022
Video type: Presentation
Description:
On Friday, 8 April 2022 we held the first of our Digital Transformation Tech Talk webinars.
Moderator
Janine Bennett, Engagement Lead, Digital Transformation and Delivery Division, Department of Health
Panellists
Michael Lye, Deputy Secretary, Ageing and Aged Care Group, Department of Health
Fay Flevaras, First Assistant Secretary, Digital Transformation and Delivery Branch, Department of Health
Laura Toyne, Acting Branch Manager, Program and Project Delivery, Digital Programs and Engagement Division, Australian Digital Health Agency
Greg Keen, Acting First Assistant Secretary, Reform Implementation Division, Department of Health
Go to this link to listen to the 90 minute presentation.
I managed to last about 35 minutes before I needed to urgently escape and unwind hitting my head against a nearby brick wall.
It is clear the Department of Health (DOH) is totally captured by the ADHA addenda of driving the centrality of all things #myHealthRecord while maintaining the services of a Digital Health buzzword generator that emits content-free drivel.
If you are game, have a listen. I did so you don’t have to!
I really despair at what this collection of highly paid bureaucrats have produced and distressingly this webinar is only one of a series.
Comments welcome.
David
20 comments:
Here's a transcript.
https://www.health.gov.au/resources/videos/video-recording-digital-transformation-tech-talk-webinar-8-april-2022
I did a search for "problem"
I got four hits, one of which referred to a technical problem they had.
This was the first "real" mention
"(Michael Lye):
Okay. So what do we know so far? To summarise the types of problems we are trying to solve or the opportunities we have to make things better we know from a recent study into the use of clinical software that over 40% of providers manually upload data to Government. Over a third of those providers don’t have a clear IT investment strategy and 40% of the clinical provider systems are not integrated. This is facing a sector that is experiencing unique challenges in the world we live in today with an increasing consumer demand and an anticipated 75% increase in reporting demands due to aged care reforms not to mention workforce skill shortages and pressures from the likes of COVID."
This was the second and third:
"(Fay Flevaras):
Yeah. Anything is possible. I think the question is why? What problem are we trying to solve? We definitely want to get to a position where we’re open, as Laura has said as well, where the right information is being shared under the right consent model. So I guess all possible. Please we’ll capture it as a suggestion and put it on the backlog of some of the new requirements that the Government and our business colleagues are looking at. Maybe if you want to put your name against it separately via an email to our Engagement Hub we can engage and find out what problem you’re trying to solve here and how it might benefit the masses in the priorities."
So that's clear then - they have no idea what their problems are.
I then did a search for "solution". There were five hits, three from Fay Flevaras, none of which were very informative.
This was one
"So what does this mean? This means that we want to speak to you today about how the Department of Health is working towards delivering these solutions."
I can't for the life of me work out what the problems actually are (there are plenty of symptoms, but very few, if any problems) or if the solutions relate to the problems.
I heeded David's warning, which is why I went for the transcript.
IMHO, the DoH is suffering from the same disease as that which affected Donald Trump. It is very easy to complain about symptoms - anyone can do that. It is much harder to identify what the real problems are and even harder to work out what to do about them. Asking people to tell them what their problems are is the big giveaway.
The DoH knows something is wrong, it's in all the books and papers. Unfortunately, they do not have the expertise to understand how to put things right, or at the very least, improve matters.
And that's the real problem.
(a) - "It is clear the Department of Health (DOH) is totally captured by the ADHA addenda of driving the centrality of all things #myHealthRecord". .... (b) .... "while maintaining the services of a Digital Health buzzword generator that emits content-free drivel."
I don't know which is the more troubling (a) or (b) or both.
After reading Adeshola Ore's article Thur 12 May in the Guardian re the Victorian Parliament "Bill to establish a database of all health records expected to be introduced in the upper house Thursday" I think (a) is the answer.
The article says "The creation of the database was recommended in an independent report on a cluster of baby deaths at Bacchus Marsh hospital in 2015." !!
The great tragedy is that that is how these huge healthIT projects suddenly get established - ie. an independent report recommended. I seem to recall the My Health Record project began following a recommendation by the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission [Report "A healthier future for all Australians - JUL 2009].
Here is the link to the Guardian article by Adeshola Ore:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/12/bid-to-compulsorily-harvest-medical-records-to-meet-opposition-in-victorias-parliament
Bizarre best describes what is happening. Victoria is not the only state rushing off to develop a state-wide medical record which contains all of a person's medical health information that becomes one source of truth which all health professionals can refer to and rely on as and when required. Oh, it will also be integrated with the My Health Record! The problem to be solved seems to be consistently described by all these state-wide projects as being to develop a system which will have all your health and medical information collected and held in ONE place.
Bizarre is an understatement. The same old reasons keep getting replayed to justify more spending on a failed concept and a failed approach. History is repeating itself in VIC, NSW, WA, TAS etc.
@6:11 PM "The creation of the database was recommended in an independent report on a cluster of baby deaths at Bacchus Marsh hospital in 2015." !!
It is preposterous to infer that creating a database would have in anyway have prevented "the cluster of baby deaths".
Please Dear God forgive them for they know not what they say.
Failure of governance, monitoring of adverse events, inadequate checking of professional staff clinical credentials, incompetence on the part of Medical Administration by the Clinical Superintendent, Director of Nursing and the Hospital Executive / Board all contributed to "the cluster of baby deaths". Nothing to do with the absence of a database however much the Government and Health Department might like to think it was.
It is so scary to think politicians and bureaucrats think that by spending hundreds of millions of dollars on an IT patient medical record database will fix the problem is the stuff of nightmares. Why is this stupidity permitted to continue?
"Why is this stupidity permitted to continue? "
Have a read of This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay (or find the TV show)
It's set in the UK/NHS but governments just don't know how to run a health service. They think it's all about money and bureaucracy.
This and reports about our healthcare system being under great strain does suggest that the problems are far deeper than anything Digital Health can offer help with. Like more money and more trained staff?
"We must do something. Digital Health is something. Lets do Digital Health"
I could not bear listening, as I am sure I have heard it before. The eHealth landscape is being shaped by people who don't have a clue about Health or IT and its painful to watch, even more painful if you are trying to do something useful. Much of the $ spent just slips away into the coffers of multinationals with no return. Once you understand that they are "Not even trying" to solve the problem it takes a little of the pain away. I have posted this link before, in 2022 its widely applicable...
https://corruption-of-science.blogspot.com/
This quote from the book sums up the 'National eHealth Authority" experience of the last 2 decades.
"So, here we have the problem of professional science today – it has been bloated by decades of exponential growth into a bureaucratically-dominated heavy industry Soviet factory, characterized by vastly inefficient mass production of shoddy goods that nobody wants."
I am sure this will lift the spirits of everyone to know that this is now the measure of success. This is what it has become, we still oddly enough fail to retain good people.
From IPAA ACT.
The runner up for the Breakthrough Category Award goes to the Australian Digital Health Agency for their COVID-19 Vaccination Dashboard. Congratulations!
Publicly stated
Immensely proud of all our teams across the Agency for what is a massive achievement.
Acknowledgment of our capability and agility. Importantly, acknowledgement of how valuable the My Health Record is. Be it covid, bushfire or flood, the My Health Record can save lives and connect your healthcare.
So it is confirmed, ADHA is indeed a second rate organisation. Clearly the assimilation into Canberra is complete - eHealth subject matter experts and those aspiring to be need not apply.
ADHA Staffer you win “joke of the day”
ADHA staffer:
"Importantly, acknowledgement of how valuable the My Health Record is. Be it covid, bushfire or flood, the My Health Record can save lives and connect your healthcare."
What was the award category? Best comedy?
The DoH person continually asks digital health companies to "volunteer" to "co-design" APIs to enable the sharing of data from aged care with the government. Do they actually believe digital health companies should do this work for free? Or am I misunderstanding this? I can't imagine Treasury would expect fintech companies to donate their services for free.
Does seem very odd for an organisation to pay out large consultancy contracts but then demand vendors build product for free? Would be cheaper to simply underwrite the costs for an independent and healthy standards community. Just fund standards without meddling in outcomes then create a situation where standards compliance can be inforece and independent testing is the norm.
"Just fund standards without meddling in outcomes then create a situation where standards compliance can be in force and independent testing is the norm."
Yes, The answer is quite obvious and that got us to virtually universal HL7V2 pathology and radiology, but then the meddling started. The fact consultancy income has skyrocketed while quality and progress has gone backward is directly related to this and I doubt its all just incompetence, although there is plenty of that.
If the government won't shut down CovidSafe even when told to do so by a Senate Select Committee and its obvious failure to be cost effective (or anything else of value), there's little chance MyHr will be junked by the Libs/Nats. That's what happens when the government is led by a bulldozer.
No plans to shut down ‘disastrous’ COVIDSafe app
Denham Sadler
https://www.innovationaus.com/no-plans-to-shut-down-disastrous-covidsafe-app/
There are no plans to switch off the controversial COVIDSafe app despite contact tracing no longer taking place in Australia and a clause in the legislation underpinning it saying it can be shut down when it is no longer required or effective.
Lead by a bulldozer living in fear of a Peter Dutton you get this -
Aged care providers have reported more than 350 Covid deaths since the election campaign began and continue to grapple with at least 60 deaths a week, government data shows.
An analysis of government data, conducted by the United Workers Union and confirmed by the Guardian, shows that Covid deaths in aged care facilities are now occurring at rates unseen in the first two years of the pandemic.
Aged care workers are preparing to strike across the country again on Friday, furious at low pay, torrid conditions, and a lack of recognition of the huge workload and workforce pressures caused by Covid.
Still the MyHR will sort it out, should lower the death rate through rubbish and incomplete record keeping.
Gee, I don't know what your problem is.
Scott Morrison said:
"We are putting the pandemic behind us and the crisis and urgency of those times, and that gives us the opportunity as a government to move into another gear,"
https://7news.com.au/politics/future-crises-handled-in-same-way-pm-c-6840408
Don't you believe what our dear leader says? The pandemic is over, get over it, just move on.
When you turn your back on things then it is correct to say those things are behind you. That is how politicians work, the unelected behind them are even more cold and brutal. Remember you are just a data point.
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